Soul of the street

Okay, so I hoped to have a table inside. But this place is seriously booked up for a reason. So… ‘street food’ it is. Soul Kitchen comes with a good reputation. Let’s see how it holds up to a slight breeze on a mild evening in Warsaw.

A Polish red wine would be first up for the test. This Pinot Noir comes with a ‘minor‘ in the name (the blurred effect is to preface my later condition):

On first taste I can’t wait to try the major. Influenced by Burgundy so I’m told. It’s good to know France is useful for something in the world of wine, not just denigrating others!

This one comes with so many ‘legs’ it could double for a consortium of octopuses (or is that octopi… no, apparently not).

Anyway, onto the kitchen stuff. The Beef Tenderloin Tartare was an obvious choice of starter, though albeit from a very strong field of competition.

It’s the additional lovage in the recipe apparently. Though it comes with a guy at your table putting the finishing touches (even out on the street). That’s got to add a few plus points to the experience.

As for a main, the short but perfect menu of options presented another First World dilemma. As ‘Daisy‘ had been so good to me already, I couldn’t let any of her go to waste. So, Beef Cheek it is.

Not to be put off by the ‘oil slick chic‘, and veggies with a distinct ‘nuts and bolts bite‘, I strapped in for an industrial experience of the most sumptuous kind.

Yes, for my dessert conscious readers, there was another short but perfectly formed (why are the best menus in my image 🤔😂) list. But, I had only one serious option to compliment a machiatto… yet another glass of the ‘Dobre Minor‘ (to fulfill the earlier blurred image effect).

Until we speak again, I’m not into licking plates, but damn, this was close!

And all of this just around the corner from a quintessential Warsaw vista.

Street food served from a Soul Kitchen. It deserves a thank you from the soul ❤️

Titting yer tats

I offer each American adult 10,000 if they vote in Democrats to control the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Well, I don’t have to elaborate any more than the King of Dumbfuckistan (aka The Orange Fart) does.

What’s more, when this state of affairs is successfully achieved in November 2026, I offer each American a lifetime of gracious best wishes.

Until we speak again, I believe that’s the best offer they’ve received this week!

Johnny and the King

As a lifelong lover of football I’m glad to see and hear the back of the US Soccerbowl shenanigans and malarky.

It all started with a sick-making schmoozefest when Johnny Infant gave a shiny new toy he’d just created to the King of the Nation of Dumbfuckistan.

Bit parts were taken up by neighbours Mexico (who know the game) and Canada (who make a reasonable pretence). But it was centre stage for the self proclaimed centre of the universe to show what contempt for the rest of the world looks like.

A game of quarters was invented so that income generating ad breaks could take priority over a format that has been cherished by the rest of the world for more than 150 years.

Then Johnny brazenly bends the universal rules at the behest of King Fuckwit. A red card with automatic suspension is itself suspended for a year (whatever that means). A futile attempt to help the almost mediocre home nation. Justice is seen to be done when the home of the pissing boy statue (Belgium) obliges by doing just that to Dumbfuckistan.

All that was needed then, to complete the diabolical insult to the game we love, was an extension of the universally enshrined half-time to accommodate more Dumbfuckistanary.

Oh, we have that covered, chirped infantile Johnny. Another key definer of the beautiful game is bent and twisted to meet the ugly demands of ignorance in power.

But Juno, why boycott the beautiful game just because lipstick has been added to a pigs lips, I hear people say. Surely you’re depriving yourself of something you love, the crowd try to remind me.

Until we speak again, the personal challenge to boycott the American shitshow is successfully completed. No minutes watched throughout a whole World Cup. The first time since 1978 (when I just happened to be a student with no access to a TV). A tournament which by the way included Argentina in the final against a European team… somethings don’t change, except for the identity of the victors.

Smak Ukrainski

No, that title isn’t a further command from the Fuhrer in the Kremlin. Smak Ukrainski happens to be something you really should do the next time you happen to be in Krakow in Poland.

Whilst many fabulous Polish restaurants were tried and loved, I simply couldn’t resist an opportunity of my first Ukraine culinary experience.

We seem to be struggling and stumbling to fully support their fight for survival against a vicious aggressor. Yet, it turns out they are supporting us in quite delicious ways. The following is just a selection from the full menu…

Plums with Bacon turns out to be something of a sweet and sour taste explosion that leaves your pigs in blankets thrashing about in the proverbial…

Then there is the option of Potato Cakes & Goulash with a side of Young Fried Cabbage. Meat and two veg will never be the same.

But, if Ukraine cuisine came as a pleasant surprise, that was nothing compared to the first discovery of Ukrainian red wine.

After perusing five pages of Georgian wines I was already in liquid heaven. Then the final page delivered up the beautiful surprise.

The dry Merlot instantly opened my eyes to a hitherto unexpected source of the desired nectar. It’s smooth and bold enough to open up peace negotiations with anyone. Well, probably not with intransigent psychopathic Russians.

Until we speak again, it seems Ukraine has a high class offer for us. It’s about time we reciprocated with more than the current warm words and promises.

Solidarity

A visit to Gdansk provides a stark reminder of what Solidarity meant in troubled times across 1980’s Poland. The Solidarity Museum in the heart of the old shipyards bring back memories of when Lech Walesa was international news, and principles and truth meant something to liberal leaning democracies.

It seems that nowadays, as the King of Dumbfuckistan reeks havoc across the world in pursuit of total narcissism, Solidarity is a long forgotten idea. Perhaps it now means little more than a shared moment over capuccino and cake.

Fortunately, Gdansk now has that covered.

Until we speak again, if you feel the state of the news is rather depressing, wasn’t it always thus? Find your own act of Solidarity, even if it is little more than a coffee.

Aparatus of the State

On a further visit to the incredible city of Berlin it was time to focus more time on the old east side.

Visiting the DDR museum gives a general picture of daily life under a dictatorship, particularly shortages of what we in the west saw as basics of good old consumerism.

Then there were the ‘incentives’ of such things as artificially cheap housing. But nothing came without at least a subliminal message of menace.

But it’s the Stasi Museum that truly brings home that chilling effect of the ‘Aparatus of the State‘.

Who’d have known that a job with the Government came with essential perks such as snitching on your neighbours, listening in on phone calls, bugging apartments. Even breaking in to apartments just to move items of furniture around… well, how else is paranoia going to foment.

Special departments were even set up to check on the loyalties of fellow employees.

In the end certain freedoms became too much to resist and contain. The greatest emblem of the aparatus… the Berlin Wall also needed to come down. Though fortunately, a lengthy strip remains as the East Side Gallery… the largest outdoor art gallery in the world.

Until we speak again, the Wall conveys many important messages that we’ll do well to remember… particularly in the deranged times of Trump trampling over basic civil liberties at home and across the world.

Berlin remembers, do we?

100 years on from the Weimar Republic, Berlin has much to remember. From Weimar to Third Reich to a divided city to the Fall of the Wall. Has any other city witnessed, experienced, suffered, and emerged from so much in such a relatively short time?

One woman immortalises the changes in a statue that is calling out for peace before the Brandenburg Gate.

The most significant remembrance surrounds the plight of Jews, in Berlin and across Europe. The Jewish Museum in the West Kreuzberg district is a Daniel Libeskind design, most disorientating in architecture, as its floors and walls disobey the builders spirit level. But its content is a creatively laid out history of Jewish faith, culture, and history.

For a particularly deep chill, spend a minute or two in the dark and claustrophobic Holocaust Tower…

However, for heightened emotion the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe provides a space for reflection and imagination. The undulating topography accommodates a dense array of grey concrete pillars of differing heights…

Walk deep into the sculpture and be immersed in your own thoughts. Then visit the enclosed museum beneath the sculture for heartbreaking personal accounts of the effect of the Third Reich across Europe.

On the site of the former Gestapo Headquarters now stands an open air monument to the history of division in the city, running alongside a remaining fragment of the infamous Berlin Wall. Known as the Topography of Terror, it depicts the major changes of the last 100 years, and horrific consequences of those changes.

The division of the city is particularly well represented in the Friedrichshain district of old East Berlin. Here is the longest fragment of the former wall. At 1 mile in length it’s considered to be the world’s largest open air gallery. East Side Gallery is a feast of modern art. What better way to democratise a former harsh symbol of division…

Until we speak again, Berliners have shown a remarkable capacity to remember its tragic recent history with vibrancy and humour. 100 years on from the ugly emergence of the Nazi Party in Germany, is the rest of the world once again failing to learn the lessons of history?

With the Chief Narcissist of Dumbfuckistan in Washington buddying up to Psychopath One in the Kremlin, and the rise of populism in every western nation, we need the current day messages from Berlin more than ever before.

All that Jazz!

So, my lovely reader, you now know Berlin has a penchant for the Christmas Market… or Weihnachten Markt, as the locals say. Is that all you think I spent my precious time doing? Drinking Glugwein (inc. a Weiss beer version), eating Bratwurst and that lovely smoked salmon?

So, the sound of Berlin has always had that underground bohemian vibe (or perhaps that’s just me). Think the Sally Bowles character in Cabaret (or perhaps that’s just me). The challenge… should I accept it (or perhaps that’s… forget that bit)… is to see if the modern Berlin lives up to its historic reputation.

First stop… A-Trane. Well, I’ve only just arrived a few hours ago. How’s a guy supposed to hit the ‘bohemia’ ground running (or, perhaps that’s just me)?

Perhaps not underground, exactly. But, the overground version provided a great intro to the local jazz scene with Andreas Schmidt and friends doing a regular Monday night slot. Something of the avant garde style to welcome me to the sound of Berlin.

Getting genuinely down underground you need to shift along the alphabet a space. B-Flat, is a club in the Hackescher Markt area. An unassuming entrance and staircase leads you into more traditional jazz territory… subterranean (or perhaps that’s just me).

Nothing traditional about KRiSPER, an electric jazz ensemble. Playing just their own compositions, with superb musicianship. There was a definite wow factor to the atmospheric style of their music (or perhaps that’s just me).

Then, keeping that overground-underground feel… The Hat Club feels like it belongs in that Cabaret-era of 1930’s kind of thing, competing with the sound of trains overhead (or perhaps that’s just me)…

It’s a nightly jam session in one of those rare places that permits smoking throughout 😷 Initially very lounge sounding (or perhaps that’s just me). But as the Vieux Carre cocktails slipped down the sound distinctly blocked out the rumbling of trains overhead (or… well, no not that… it does occupy a railway arch… ah, you didn’t see that one coming).

Until we speak again, falling off the chair, after too many local beers and fab cocktails, is permitted (or perhaps that’s just me!!!!!!).

Frohe Weihnachten

Berlin in December… I wonder what’s occurring? It seems they take their Christmas Markets very seriously. You can hardly move for stumbling across a Weihnachten Markt!

Staying close to the famous Potsdamer Platz, it’s where the world’s first traffic light confused people… and still does:

Only now it’s surrounded by, you guessed it, a Weihnachten Markt…

So I drifted towards the equally famous Alexanderplatz, to find???

But, before I could even get there I navigate the famous Gendarmenmarkt square with its…

And the potentially famous Humboldt Forum with its…

The grand setting of Schloss Charlottenburg hasn’t been spared…

Neither has the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtnis Kirche, it would seem…

Until we speak again, apparently, I’ve only scratched the surface. So, when in Berlin do what the Berliners do (I wonder if they do anything the rest of the year, or just recover until its Weihnachten Markt time all over again?)…

The wonders of Tunisia

For a whistlestop tour Tunis and surrounding area provided a great insight to the history and culture of this fascinating country… the most liberal of Arabic nations. Independent since 1956 and more recently experiencing the Jasmin Revolution of 2011, Tunisia is an open and very welcoming country.

It does plenty of very old. From the Medina…

… to Carthage…

Then there’s the hustle and bustle. From the Tunis souks (but so deserted at night)…

… to the attraction of Sidi Bou Said blue & white village…

Indigenous fresh street food often panders to those with a sweet tooth. From dates or almond Makroud in the Souks…

… to fresh and extremely light Bambalouni donuts in Sidi Bou Said…

And, of course, they do the sea big time: fresh calamari as well as fish and chips (red snapper) with a twist. Not forgetting options for roof terrace fine dining (duck & lamb dishes at Dar El Jeld)…

Until we speak again, a few days sampling the delights of Tunisia might well result in you declaring…